Broken Bungalow's Blog

Criminals hate light. It shows everyone what people are doing outside your house at night.  I makes it harder for crime to happen.   Weather it is the front of your house or the back, first part of home security is lighting.  Lights can be set on a timer or have motion activated switch.  Some lights can activate with the setting of the sun.  The choice depends on you needs.  I tried the switch that activated when the sun went down.  Because of the trees around my house in the summer the lights were on all day do to the shade they provided.  I changed to a timer that I have set to sunset to sunrise.  I only have to adjust it for daylight savings twice a year.  My back yard has motion activated flood light that provides much needed light when going to and from the garage at night.  

Lighting is also part of a homes charm.  Lighting should fit to the house and add to the value.  When looking for lights there are thousands of different designs and sources.  

After vandals broke my front light I was upset to say the least.  I have the only pole light on the block.  It adds a lot of light besides the street lights that are above the trees.  The vandals only broke the glass and not the bulbs.  The glass is too expensive to just replace the glass.  I had to go out and get a new light.  I went with the Westinghouse Riverband model 64866 textured rust patina finish with water glass and Tiffany accents.  http://www.amazon.com/Westinghouse-64866/dp/B00067YRCO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1258509096&sr=8-1 It takes a stander A-19 bulb.  I put in a new 32 LED bulb thats energy efficient.  Installation went very easy because I had put in the pervious light and new how it was wired.  It took 15-20 minutes to complete the install, now I have a new light.  

Motion Sensor switch
It would drive me crazy every time I got home and saw the basement light was left on.  I know how it would happen.  The wife or I would do some laundry and come upstairs with a basket and forget to turn the light switch off.  I found the Levition wall switch to turn on the savings. Had even thought I would get a second switch for the kids room.  I did not because I knew it would be a strobe light at bed time.  
Replacing the switch is straight forward like any other switch.  The only difference is the programing of the switch of how much time you want it to stay on.  The original programed to stay on for five minutes.  Now when carrying a basket to do the laundry without trying to find the basement switch without dropping the basket.  
Levition Switch
http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=54353&section=17219

LED Bulbs
Make a change to save electricity one bulb at a time.  Buy a new light. Get a new bulb.  When one light goes out replace with an energy efficient bulb.  The Feit electric Accent 32 LED’s bulb should save me money.  At 90% more efficient than an incandescent bulb. I will last up to 30,000 hours. It is environmentally friendly because it is mercury free.  This will be going into my new front light when it is put up next week.
www.feit.com


Kill-a-Watts
“Electricity bill are rising. Now you can cut down on costs and find out what appliances are actually worth keeping plugged in. Simply connect these appliances to the Kill A Watt™, and it will assess how efficient they really are. Large LCD display will count consumption by the Killowatt-hour, same as your local utility. You can calculate your electrical expenses by the day, week, month, even an entire year. Also check the quality of your power by monitoring Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor. Now you´ll know if it is time for a new refrigerator or if that old air conditioner is still saving you money. With the amazing Kill A Watt™ you´ll know “Watts” killing you.”
(http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html)

I originally found this online at www.thinkgeek.com.   I have found this vary useful in testing which appliances and electronics I will replace first.  After testing a few items I will replace the energy hogs.  Some items that are newer I will put on a Belkin's Conserve Energy-Saving Surge Protector.

Belkin’s Conserve Energy-Saving Surge Protector.
http://www.belkin.com/conserve/

After testing and finding that my nice stereo system is a power hog... go figure.  I put it on Belkin’s Conserve Energy-Saving Surge Protector.  Now with a flick of a switch I can cut all the power that would be running when the stereo is not in use most of the day.  I will be getting a few more of these when I have the cash.  They are great with the cordless switch I can place anywhere.  

Squeezing the digital bandwidth.

Willing to work for better bandwidth.  Everyone wants faster downloads, better TV reception, a cellphone that will teleport you to work because the traffic sucks.  There are ways to find and improve and at the very least quantify what you have..  

Mainline the digital signal.

Testing your computer bandwidth is very easy.  First check your provider to see what range you should be getting.  A lot of company get away with telling the customer that they can get up to a certain bandwidth full knowing they are never achieve that bandwidth. Try going to test bandwidth.  http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/  This is a good start to see what you are getting.  When you are below what your provider said is the minimum please call them and complain and say that you are not happy with the service.  Have them come out and test your system.  Also, note that the amount of computers and other devices that use WiFi will use up your bandwidth.

Getting free HDTV without the ears.

We have all started off with rabbit ears antenna.  They use to come with every TV.  Now, TV are cable ready and no antenna.  Some old house have antenna on the roof.  My was there for a long time before a storm blew it off before we got a new roof. When we bought our house the previous owners had run RCN cable by running cable room to room through the wood molding.  Before moving the cut the cable in enough spots to make it all useless.  They also had a satellite on top of the roof with local antenna on the dish.  To same money we held off of getting cable or satellite to use to put into the house.  We used rabbit ears antenna on the TV’s to get local analog channels.  This was before the Digital switch.  After the Digital switch we lost a few of the local channels.  I live close enough to downtown that I should have no problem with getting channels..  I ran new cable in the basement to a few of the locations where we have TV’s.  I ran the cable outside up to the satellite and use that little antenna to get a better signal.  This gave me better reception that I had before.  I new I could get a better signal.  After a few trips to the hardware stores.  Of course you have to go to more than one.  I spent more that I should to the point that I no longer have an antenna.  I have an antenna array.   I am using a Direct DB2 Multidirectional Antenna, Phillips 43 Elements SDV4401/27, Philips HDTV/DTV/UHF SDV9201K/17, a 5’ pole, and an Easy Up 3’ Antenna tripod. After about two hours to put it all together in the basement dry fitted.  Then it took another two hours up on the roof in the nice fall cold wind to put all together.  Now, I have a lot of channels that have a 100% signal improvement. 

Cell phone sucking the digital life out of you?

We all have been there when we find ourself in the dead zone.  I have found a few items that may improve those dead zones in our house.   On www.thinkgeek.com:http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cell-phone/b8a0/ This devise will improve your signal a few bars.  To Extender the signal you may want to get a Cell Phone Extender:http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/9823/ Some Cell companies have better signal in certain areas that other companies.  I best to ask friends who have different service to see who has a better signal and where.

Fall Season 

Getting ready for winter. 

Get ready of the change of the season. Get your sweater on and some hot chocolate and take the time to enjoy the fall colors.

1. Furnace clean and serviced.
2. New filter every month for the furnace.
3. Put lawn furniture away and cover furniture that stays outside. 
4. Put annual plotted plants away.
5. Put away summer decorations. 
6. Put up Fall decorations.
7. Put away anything that holds water: fountains, bird baths, watering cans, hoses, rain  barrels.
8. Cover outside faucets with frost covers. Even if they are modern frost proof faucets.
9. Put summer sports equipment away. Bikes, skates, balls.
10. Cut back perennial plants along walkways. 
11. Change outside lights.  Its easier to change lights in the fall than it is in the winter.
12. Change light timers to match with daylight savings.
13. Install new batteries in thermostat.
14. Install new batteries in smoke detectors.
15. Put away summer shoes and coats. Get fall and winter boots and coats.
16. Put away summer clothes and bring out fall clothes.
17. Caulk outside windows. doors, and cracks.
18. Rack up leaves and put in compost pile.
19. Clean gutters once all leaves have fallen off the trees.
20. Clean and fall prep lawnmower and lawn care equipment.
21. Clean and prep winter equipment. Snow blower, shovel, winter salt.
22. Put window air conditioner away.
23. After last rake of leaves put winter fertilizer on lawn. 
24. Clean outside windows.
25. Enjoy the fall colors.